


In Wait

by bela013



Series: Fantine x Javert [5]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-18
Updated: 2013-04-18
Packaged: 2017-12-08 20:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/765542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bela013/pseuds/bela013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In her bed, Fantine thinks about the things she have to do, and the daughter she needs to protect. And after longing so much for things, when her wishes are finally fulfilled, she doesn't even know what to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Wait

Being awake for the first time in days was confusing and mildly upsetting, but Fantine tried to remain calm, if the doctor or his wife were to find out that she was awake, they might give her more of the strong medicine that kept knocking her out.

Fantine tries to stand up, she couldn't remain there. She needed to work, Cosette needed the money. Still, she was to weak to do so, a sob catches in her throat, why did she have to be so useless?

Not only was she useless, she was pitiful. Inspector Javert pitted her, this is why he brought her here, but did not stay. He wasn't by her side, nor would he be. He was a busy man, he did not have the time for women like herself.

When she got there, she tried to reach him, arms open in his direction, hands trying to grab his coat. But the doctor got a hold of her as Javert stepped away, towards the door.

He turned, looking from under the brim of his hat. Fantine liked to think that he was debating whether he should stay or go, but deep down she knew that his look was only of disgust.

The sound of the front door opening was clear to her, it was past nightfall already. It must be another patient looking for help. There are hushed voices, male voices. She thinks she knows who it belongs to, but doesn't want to lift up her hopes.

The door of her room opens before she can lay back down and pretend to sleep. And at the door frame stands the doctor, giving way to man and his daughter. He was tall, and the cap he wore cast a shadow over his face, and in his arms, a tiny girl, of blonde hair, looking like a doll.

"I'll leave you two alone" not waiting for an answer, the doctor closes the door, leaving her still at her bed, back to the head board, and the man standing in the middle of the room, holding his daughter and looking awkward.

Confusion is all she gets as he lifts up his head, and looks with green eyes at her, opening and closing his mouth. His face was just like the one of the Inspector Javert, but his clothes did not match. Those were the clothes of a normal man.

"Fantine, I- I..." no, but that was his voice. That voice belonged to the Inspector. He rubbed circles on the girls back, and since the girl did not awake for a second, she could tell that his actions were to calm him, and not the girl.

Fantine did not answer. There was nothing to say. He left her in this unknown place, with a doctor and his wife, alone, even after she told him that she needed to work, that she needed the money for her Cosette. He left her and now he comes back with his own daughter, to mock her.

Anger filled her eyes with tears. She wished to be stronger. Strong enough to stand up and slap him. To take his daughter in her own arms and hug her, to pretend that his little blonde doll was her own Cosette.

"I'm sorry" as if reading her mind, Javert apologized and steps closer, offering his own daughter to her.

The girl has her hands in his coat, and even in her sleep, pulled herself back to his arms. But he was stronger, and was quick in placing her by Fantine's side on the bed.

Using what little strength she still had, Fantine picks her up and cradles the girl to her chest. It's been so long since she last held a child. Her Cosette was just a baby when she last saw her, and she held her much in this fashion.

"What is her name, Inspector?" she could forgive him anything after this, just by holding the girl in her arms she was filled by an odd sense of relief. As if she released a breath she's been holding.

"Don't you know?" there was genuine surprise in his voice, which made her tore her gaze from the sleeping girl to look at his face. Inspector Javert looked so young with those clothes. Or maybe, it was just the rag doll in his pocket, or the way he held the girl, with so much care, as if she was to fall if he din't.

She could relate to his care of her, it was the same with Cosette. She could barely walk the streets with her, in fear of her feet getting caught on  one of the flagstones and dropping her daughter on her head.

"That's Cosette, Fantine. Your Cosette" she was sure that he had slapped her so hard that the air was knocked out of her, because that's what it felt like. How could he do this to her? How could he say suck horrible lies? "It's the truth, Fantine. I found the Thénardiers on Montfermeil, where you said their inn was, and i found her."

She look down at the girl again, she could not bare to look at his face. Tears dripped on the girl's face - she would not call her Cosette. Cosette was safe at Montfermeil, she was being well cared by the Thénardiers. Cosette was not here.

"You have to believe me" kneeling to her bedside, he only had time to grasp her chin, bringing her face up, to look at him, before the girl in her arms started to stir and wake up.

Javert did not know what to do. He knew that this would be hard, but as Cosette started to cry, pushing away from Fantine and throwing herself at him, bringing them both to the floor, he was certain that this was true chaos.

"Please, Cosette, there is no need for all this noise" this wouldn't be easy, the girl wouldn't let go, and the mother was still shaking her head in denial, tears running down both their eyes.

After he sat up on the floor, Cosette in his arms, she stopped crying, at least the screaming part, for she still buried her leaking face to his neck. He rubbed circles in her back and as he did when she slept, it served to calm him and her both.

"Why would you do this to me?" Fantine looked at him for that, it was not the daughter she claimed that wasn't hers that she blamed, it was him, the one who teased her with a little girl, one much like her, her own if she would cease her stubborn notions.

"Cosette, will you please look at me?" there was no point in trying to argue with Fantine, but if he was to show her that the girl was Cosette, he would be able to leave them to work their problems and walk away from that mess. "There is someone I want you to meet, Cosette"

"You were trying to leave me again" from the girl, comes another accusation. It was as if these women were bent on making my life as difficult as possible. Cosette refused to lift her head and look at him or at Fantine for that matter.

"I'm not leaving you with a stranger, though." no point in denying, he was leaving her, she was not his daughter, he could not keep her. Not that he ever wanted to keep the girl. "I told you I would bring you home, didn't I? This is your mother, Cosette. I came to leave you with her."

That was obviously a bad thing to say, for as soon as it left his mouth, both of them responded in the most violent way. Cosette started to pull his coat, screaming that she did not want to stay there, that she wanted to go with him, that her mother would abandon her again. While Fantine started to accuse him of mistreating his own daughter, lying to her, and making the girl pass through this horrible things, only to start crying once Cosette's words wore understood.

"Enough!" tired of the noise and confusion that these women were creating in his life, Javert rises to his feat, puts Cosette, who had been startled by his volume, into Fantine's side at the bed, walking out of the room before they had any chance to talk back. Javert barks at the doctor on his way out, telling him to keep an eye at the girl too, and without hearing an answer.

He went all the way to Montfermeil for the girl, all because Fantine was worried for her daughter, he didn't have to do a thing, but he did. And this is how they repay him. Crying and accusing him, as if he was not the one who helped them so.

Almost half the way to his own house, he remembers the doll in his pocket, and it takes him a minute of standing in the middle of the road, with the doll clasped in his hand to make him turn back to the doctor's house. The doctor doesn't even look at to him when he opens the front door and the one of Fantine's room.

He find them inside, where he left them, but now them hugged, together in whatever pit of misery that dug to themselves. And upon seeing him standing there, Cosette is the first to answer, by jumping off the bed and into his arms, mumbling of how she just knew that he would come back for her.

Fantine leaned back to the headboard, and the look on her face clearly said that she believed him now. And that she was in want of answers, but she could wait until Cosette was back to sleep before he had to answer them.


End file.
